Deconstructing Putin’s marathon year-end news conference
Jamie McIntyre
PUTIN SITTING PRETTY: Emboldened by the failure of the United States to approve new military aid for Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin projected a newfound confidence about his ability to outlast the West in his four-hour, end-of-the-year news conference.
Putin skipped the annual tradition last year, when the war was going badly, but resumed the highly choreographed forum this year, fielding questions from the press and the public while sounding confident that he now has the winning hand in the nearly two-year war.
“There will be peace when we achieve our goals,” Putin said near the top of the marathon session. “They have not changed. I would like to remind you how we formulated them: denazification, demilitarization, and a neutral status for Ukraine.”
“Today Ukraine produces very little. They are trying to maintain some production, but it is almost nonexistent,” Putin said, referring to Ukraine’s dependence on economic and military assistance supplied by the U.S. and its allies and partners. “Everything they get is a freebie, and I apologize for such talk, but these freebies may end one day. In fact, they are already coming to an end, little by little.”
SCHUMER SAYS SENATE WILL ‘KEEP AT’ BORDER TALKS AND LEAVES DOOR OPEN TO DELAYING RECESS
NEW CLAIMS, DETAILS: Putin sought to reassure the Russian public that another round of “mobilization” would be unnecessary because the last round exceeded its goal of signing up 400,000 new soldiers by the end of this year.
“As of yesterday evening, I received a report that 486,000 have been recruited,” Putin said. “The number of men who are ready to defend the interests of our motherland with arms in hand is not decreasing.”
One of Putin’s primary battlefield advantages is his willingness to sustain very high casualties, estimated by the U.S. to be in the range of 315,000 killed and wounded since the invasion began in February of last year. Putin revealed the current force in Ukraine numbers roughly a quarter of a million troops. “If I am not mistaken, there are 244,000 soldiers directly in the combat zone, in the special military operation zone,” he said.
Putin also claimed Russian troops have destroyed much of the Western-supplied weapons that Ukraine used in its unsuccessful counteroffensive to retake occupied territory in the east and south.
“They received 400 tanks, around 420 or 430, as promised. By the way, they got everything as promised. Ukraine received everything and even more than what was promised by the West,” Putin said. “But ever since the start of the so-called counteroffensive, we have destroyed 747 tanks. This is as of yesterday evening. We have also destroyed almost 2,300 armored vehicles of various types.”
ISW: ‘PUTIN REITERATED MAXIMALIST OBJECTIVES’: In its daily analysis, the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War said, “Putin displayed notable confidence in publicly discussing Russia’s war on Ukraine” as he answered questions from U.S. and other Western reporters along with pre-selected questions from the Russian public.
“Putin’s willingness to center large portions of the event on the war in Ukraine suggests an increased confidence in his ability to address the Russian public on the subject, which may be indicative of his own personal confidence in Russia’s prospects in Ukraine following the relatively successful Russian defensive operations in western Zaporizhia Oblast and perceived wavering Western support for Ukraine,” the ISW said. However, “Putin did not offer a new approach to the war, describe how Russia intends to achieve victory in Ukraine or specify what a Russian victory would look like.”
“The Kremlin appears to be returning to expansionist rhetoric last observed before the full-scale invasion about a ‘partitioned Ukraine’ that rejects key components of Ukrainian sovereignty and territorial integrity, and which includes the stated intention of the occupation and annexation of additional Ukrainian territory,” the ISW said.
In his remarks, Putin expressed a desire to extend his occupation of Ukraine to include the vital Black Sea port city of Odesa. “Neither Crimea nor the Black Sea region has any connection to Ukraine. Odesa is a Russian city. We know this. Everyone knows this. But they [Ukrainians] have concocted some historical nonsense,” Putin said. “The southeastern part of Ukraine has always been pro-Russian because it is historically a Russian territory. … This southeastern part is pro-Russian, which was important to us. They always voted for those who advocated a pro-Russian stance in Ukraine’s domestic and foreign policy.”
PUTIN ASSERTS CLAIM TO UKRAINE’S ENTIRE BLACK SEA COAST
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HAPPENING TODAY: National security adviser Jake Sullivan is wrapping up his visit to Israel with a visit to the West Bank and a meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to discuss a U.S. proposal for a possible post-war plan to administer Gaza.
In his meetings today with Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Sullivan relayed President Joe Biden’s strong desire to see the war move to a less intense level of fighting in order to protect innocent civilian lives. “I want them to be focused on how to save civilian lives — not stop going after Hamas, but be more careful,” Biden said yesterday.
“When Israel launched this campaign to root out the terrorist threat that Hamas poses to the state of Israel, it made clear from the beginning that this war would proceed in phases,” Sullivan said in a news conference in Tel Aviv. “We are now in the middle of a high-intensity phase with ongoing ground operations military operations in both the northern half and the southern half of Gaza, but there will be a transition to another phase of this war, one that is focused in more precise ways on targeting the leadership and on intelligence-driven operations that continues to deal with the ongoing threat that Hamas poses.”
“The conditions and the timing for that was obviously a subject of conversation that I had with Prime Minister Netanyahu,” Sullivan said.
THE ‘DUMB BOMB’ PROBLEM: Sullivan was also asked about Israel’s widespread use of antiquated, unguided gravity bombs, which lack the precision to limit unintended civilian casualties. Reports surfaced yesterday that said roughly 40% of the roughly 29,000 air-to-ground munitions lacked satellite or laser guidance.
“What I would say is that different types of munitions require different types of military operations,” Sullivan said. “At the end of the day, what we have consistently said is that Israel has the intent to make sure that it is drawing those distinctions clearly and in a sustainable way, and we want to see the results match up to that.”
“That’s a conversation that I had in full with them today and yesterday as well,” he said. “And we’ll continue to do that, including on the type of munitions they use, when they use a certain type of munitions, and how those are delivered to ensure that from the United States perspective. They are fulfilling their obligations, their responsibilities as a state to international humanitarian law.”
BIDEN URGES ISRAEL TO ‘BE MORE CAREFUL’ GOING AFTER HAMAS
PUTIN ON ‘WRONGFULLY DETAINED’ AMERICANS: During his marathon media event yesterday, Putin was pressed about whether two Americans, considered wrongfully detained by Russia, might soon be released in some sort of prisoner swap.
“My colleague, a Wall Street Journal correspondent Evan Gershkovich, has been held in Lefortovo prison without a trial for 37 weeks. The extension on his detention was today, again, upheld. Paul Whelan, another U.S. citizen, has been in prison for nearly five years,” Valerie Hopkins of the New York Times said. “A spokesman for the U.S. State Department, which considers both men wrongfully detained, recently said that Moscow had rejected what it called a substantial offer to return both of them to the United States. Is that true? What will it take to bring them home?
“You said that he was kept in jail without trial, and at the same time, you said that his detention term had been extended,” Putin responded defensively. “But if his detention term was extended, it was done under a court ruling. So, it is incorrect to say it was done without trial.”
“I’d say, why don’t they avoid violating the law in the Russian Federation? But this is all just rhetoric,” Putin continued. “It is not that we have refused to send them back — we have not. But we want to come to terms [with the American side], and we want these agreements to be mutually acceptable to both sides.”
“We are maintaining a dialogue on this issue, and it is not an easy one,” Putin said. “I will not go into detail now, but generally, we seem to be speaking a language that is clear to each other. Hopefully, we will find a solution.’
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The Rundown
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Washington Examiner: Biden urges Israel to ‘be more careful’ going after Hamas
Washington Examiner: Israel offers bounty for Hamas chief in bid to hasten Gaza war victory
Washington Examiner: Putin asserts claim to Ukraine’s entire Black Sea coast
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Washington Examiner: Risk of war with China is real and rising
Washington Examiner: Opinion: Why the US shouldn’t and won’t abandon Ukraine
Washington Examiner: Opinion: Escalating against the Philippines, China attempts to exploit US distraction
Reuters: Philippines ‘Wargaming’ Chinese Hostilities As Sea Standoffs Intensify
New York Times: Washington Urges Israel to Scale Down Its War in Gaza
The Hill: Top General, Pentagon Chief To Meet With Israeli Officials Next Week
Washington Post: Unguided ‘dumb bombs’ used in almost half of Israeli strikes on Gaza
AP: Ukraine gets EU membership boost, but no new European aid, after setback in US
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Calendar
FRIDAY | DECEMBER 15
10 a.m. — Asia Society Policy Institute virtual discussion: “Taiwan Elections in 2024: Who is Running and What to Expect,” with Rorry Daniels, managing director of the Asia Society Policy Institute; Simona Grano, senior fellow on Taiwan at the Asia Society Policy Institute’s Center for China Analysis; and Lyle Morris, senior fellow for foreign policy and national security at the Asia Society Policy Institute’s Center for China Analysis https://asiasociety.zoom.us/webinar/register
10 a.m. 1775 Massachusetts Ave. NW — Brookings Institution discussion: “U.S.-China Relations,” with U.S. Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns https://www.brookings.edu/events/a-conversation-with-us-ambassador-to-china
QUOTE OF THE DAY “We don’t call them ‘dumb bombs’ anymore. They are ‘directionally challenged.’” An unnamed Air Force public affairs officer describing the difference between satellite and laser-guided precision munitions and old-fashioned, unguided gravity bombs.